being respected. i believe we have become paralyzed, paralyzed by our desire to be loved. tonight, we are going to do what my mother taught me. tonight, we're going to choose respect over love. >> to love or not to love? that was the question last night at the abbreviated republican national convention. it started a day late but with a bang on a rousing keynote address from new jersey governor chris christie preceded as you saw there by an appeal to women from ann romney. welcome back to another special edition of "way too early" as we take a live look at tampa at 5:30 in the morning. after a night of marquee speeches here. good morning, i'm willie geist live again today just steps away from the arena where last night governor christie fired up the republican crowd with a speech that never mentioned president obama by name. in fact, didn't get around to mentioning mitt romney until

deep into that keynote. christie did have a tough act to follow as ann romney led off primetime with a personal address to the coun talking about the mitt romney she's known and been married to for 43 years. she spoke directly as well to all the ladies in the house. we'll go through the night at the rnc with john heilman in just a moment. we begin this morning with hurricane isaac, the storm that spared tampa for the most part but is whipping the gulf coast as we speak. at this moment, isaac is a category 1 hurricane with top sustained winds of 80 miles an hour. it made landfall yesterday then backed off a bit and now has made a second landfall. right now a mandatory evacuation order is in place for parts of plaquemines parish in louisiana after water topped several miles of a levee there. officials now going door to door this morning telling people to get to higher ground. again, that's in plaquemines parish. bill karins has new information on the storm's path. first let's start this morning with the weather channel's paul goodloe live in gulfport,

mississippi. paul, what does it look like this morning? >> reporter: i tell you what, willie, this morning the wind has been howling. i have my hand-held anemometer wind gauge. easily over 25 miles an hour but a lot of gusts in the 30s and 40s. once you get above 30, it starts to move. i'm north of 220 here. there's also reports of west of me where new orleans is, they're getting powered with a lot of heavy rain. there's concerns about those pumps being able to pump that rainwater out of new orleans to avoid some of the flooding as well as some concerns about a levee being overtopped in plaquemines parish. now, again, an overtopped levee is far better situation than a broken levee or a busted levee. that's what happened seven years ago to this day when katrina slammed the area here in mississippi, devastating this area. in fact, seven years ago, i probably would have been under maybe an additional ten feet of water. it had a storm surge of 2922 feet right here.

west of me in new orleans, the plaquemines parish, which is south of new orleans, the levees, some are actually just earthen levees, so big mounds of dirt and ground. the water has risen so much and the wind is blowing that water, the water is up and over some of the levees and coming into some of the neighborhoods, flooding some homes. that's the latest i've heard in that area. no levee has been broken yet, and no levee has been busted open. no breaching. just overtopping of levees. the levees are still holding, but the big concern not only from new orleans and points eastward here across the mississippi coast and gulfport is the relentless wind and the rain. again, the rain could last well into tomorrow morning. and the wind also is going to stay in that tropical storm force gusts well into thursday. we're trying to batten down the hatches and weather the storm. u.s. 90 behind me has been closed because of the storm surge, the seawall and the ocean or the mississippi sound is already up to that seawall, and high tide is about four hours

from now. so we're expecting a higher surge here, maybe overtopping of the road behind me. willie? >> all right, paul goodloe, hang in there, good news at least for now about those levees holding up in louisiana. thanks, paul. we turn for a look at what isaac has in store for today. we go up to new york and bill karins. good morning. >> good morning. isaac has stalled out, packed a punch. for a category 1, i think it's going to leave its mark in southeastern louisiana. about 400,000 people estimated now without power throughout the region in the gulf coast states. and a lot of those people will have to wait to get their power on in two days from now. the worst weather by far this morning is right smack in new orleans. they've had some of the strongest wind gusts with this storm of anyone down there on the gulf coast. the storm is moving to the south of them. there on the dirty side, the northeast quadrant, the winds are howling this morning in new orleans. probably the worst weather conditions new orleans will see throughout the entire storm is occurring right now. we have flash flood warnings because we've already had upwards of six to ten inches of

rain. the lakefront area reporting 7 1/2 inches of rain. notice that the rains haven't been that widespread across the gulf, but the southeast quadrant there of louisiana has just gotten nailed. look at the wind gusts. 70 miles per hour at the new orleans international airport. 68 at the lakefront. the highest winds on the map are right in new orleans. the winds are coming from the northeast right over lake pontchartrain. nothing to block it. and it's just been pounding the new orleans area. the storm's definitely been an overachiever for damage and power outages down there in southeastern louisiana. we're going to slowly weaken the storm today. but this is going to be a painful journey through the state. it won't exit the state of louisiana until thursday evening. willie, a lot of our latest projections are showing that the rains in new orleans will continue at least 24 hours more. it looks like the levees are holding. that's good. we've probably seen the worst of the storm surge. we hope those pumps can keep up with all the water falling from the sky. >> bill, real quick, what does it mean that the storm made landfall yesterday, then they say it backed off and made a

second landfall again overnight. what does that mean exactly? >> well, if you look at a map of louisiana, the mouth of the mississippi river, the delta there, goes pretty far out into the gulf. it actually went, crossed that, stalled out, then went back over the water again. and that was over water last night for about ten hours kind of tried to keep its intensity, if not strengthen. and then it moved on shore again in louisiana. it's made its final landfall. so that's why, willie. it crossed land, went back over the ocean and now it's back over land again. >> all right. bill karins, we'll be checking in with you all morning long. we appreciate it. now we turn to the republican national convention which convenes again today with speeches from mike huckabee, jeb bush, john mccain, condi rise, susanna martinez and congressman paul ryan of wisconsin. last night hours after a roll call nominated mitt romney as the republican candidate, the convention capped off its full day with two highly anticipated speakers. first the candidate's wife, ann

romney, followed by the keynote from new jersey, governor chris christie. mrs. romney was welcomed to the arena to a huge ovation. she delivered a speech that attempted to reshape some of the public perception about her husband. >> i'm still in love with that boy i met at a high school dance. and he still makes me laugh. i read somewhere that mitt and i have a storybook marriage. well, let me tell you something. in the storybooks i read, there never were long, long, rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once. and those storybooks never seemed to have chapters called m.s. or breast cancer. a storybook marriage, nope, not at all. what mitt romney and i have is a real marriage. >> mrs. romney also described some of the generosity about her husband that he doesn't speak

about she says comfortably on his own. she also spent a good chunk speaking to women voters, combatting the perception and the polls that suggest republicans just don't get them. >> it's the moms who have always had to work a little harder to make everything right. it's the moms of this nation, single, married, widowed, who really hold this country together. we're the mothers. we are the wives. we're the grandmothers. we're the big sisters. we're the little sisters, and we are the daughters. you know it's true, don't you? i love you women! and i hear your voices. >> oprahesque shout-out to all the ladies in the house. after the speech, mitt romney who had been watching backstage walked out, hugged his wife, waved to the crowd before making

a hasty exit to make way for chris christie. the romneys watched from a vip box as governor christie took the stage with a pumped fist. governor christie discussing his own background and his own achievements as governor of new jersey, using that as a backdrop to call for similar leadership in the oval office. it was 16 minutes by our count into the speech before governor christie mentioned mitt romney by name. >> we need politicians to care more about doing something and less about being something. and believe me, believe me, if we can do this in a blue state like new jersey with a conservative republican governor, washington, d.c. is out of excuses! leadership delivers. leadership counts. leadership matters. and here's the great news i came here tonight to bring you. we have this leader for america.

we have a nominee who will tell us the truth and will lead with conviction. and now he has a running mate whwi do the same. we have governor mitt romne congressman paul ryan, and we need to make them the next president and vice president of the united states! >> governor christie also talked in his address about the need he says for shared sacrifice and being honest, as he says he's been, about addressing entitlements. >> we believe in telling our seniors the truth about our overburdened entitlements. we know seniors not only want these programs to survive, but they just as badly want them secured for their grandchildren. our seniors are not selfish. here's what they believe. they believe seniors will always put themselves ahead of their grandchildren. and here's what they do. they prey on their vulnerabilities and scare them with misinformation for the

single, cynical purpose of winning the next election. here's their plan. whistle a happy tune while driving us off the fiscal cliff as long as they are behind the wheel of power when we fall. >> john heilman is the national affairs editor for "new york" magazine and msnbc political analyst and co-author of the bible about the 2008 presidential campaign, "game change." thanks for waking up this morning. >> you are a brutal taskmaster, but i'm thrilled to be here. >> i expect to see you here all week, my man. let's first talk about governor chris christie. a lot being made about the fact that it sounded more like his own nomination speech than a stump speech for mitt romney. what's your take? >> well, i think that that's a fair comment in the sense that, you know, as people point out, it was a long time before he talked about romney. it's a little unfair in the sense that, you know, the standard we've been holding him to for the last few days is will he do what barack obama did in 2004 and break out as a national

figure? you look at barack obama's speech in 2004 speech, which was a great speech, nobody remembers what he said about john kerry. it was a vision. i think the greater problem with the speech is that it didn't have, i thought, the kind of uplifting optimistic tone or substance that you need to have if you're going to do what obama did in 2004. you know, i watched the speech as i know you did from my hotel partly because i'm working on something else, but also because i like sometimes to watch to see what america is seeing. and a media strategist told me it's good to watch with the sound off because a lot of americans, you know, you absorb a lot through body language and through facial expressions. he looked kind of angry through the speech. and he looked angrier than he sounded. but there was not a lot of smile and not a lot of happy warrior in chris christie. and i thought the speech was

okay. it was fine. it wasn't a disaster. but it wasn't, i think, it's not going to be remembered as a breakout speech that's going to be the thing -- chris christie may have a great national future, but i don't think this speech will be the reason why, if he turns out to be the nominee eight years from now or whatever, i don't think this speech will be the reason why. >> and in fact, if you listen to a lot of people here, it may have been overshadowed by the speech that came right before it, the one given by mitt romney's weiss, ann romney. she did a couple of things. she tried to fill in some of the blanks about his personal story, break through some of the cartoon version that's been made about him as an unfeeling rich guy, but also to speak directly to women. she said it out loud and explicitly, "i love you women," kind of a little heavy-handed, but the point was very clear. how did she do last night? >> first of all, her performance skills were extremely high. she made the point yesterday that she hadn't -- she hadn't really delivered speeches from prepared text. this was a speech written for her. she's on this prompter, the biggest crowd she's ever spoken in front of both inside and

outside. she came across really well. not to demean it, but she looked great. she had great voice control, great breath control. she gave a great performance. from a writer's standpoint, you know, you want to both tell and show. and there was a lot of telling in this speech. she asserted a lot of things about mitt romney. there was not, i thought, the illustrative anecdotes that would have made the speech an a-plus speech. it was definitely an a-minus speech. you needed a couple of great moments that illustrated what mitt romney is like more than just her asserting what mitt romney is like, but, you know, by and large, i think a really successful speech. i think the bigger question, though, for the whole day was whether, as a totality, yesterday got accomplished what you would ideally want to accomplish, which was having people come away with a clear theme and a better full sense of who mitt romney is for what is going to be one of only three

days in this republican convention. >> as you said in that hall all day, i spent a good part of the evening there, it was about women, with a parade of women capped by ann romney's speech. i want to thank you for being here. what we're giving to all our guests this morning is this handsome chuck todd button to be worn on your lapel. we've got more for all the nice people that have come out this morning. >> if it's a chuck todd button, how could it not be handsome? >> there it is. by definition, it's handsome. >> i'm going to wear this really for the rest of my life. >> john, we'll see you on "morning joe." still ahead here on "way too early," we'll take a quick break for sports. the dodgers, a bus full of superstars. but last night they lost their biggest star of them all, matt kemp messes up his knee, slamming into the wall. we'll have the latest ahead in sports. and we'll go back to the gulf coast to check in on hurricane isaac which has made landfall once again. the damage so far and the path when "way too early" comes right back to the elephant bar in

tampa, florida. thank you so much. and i thank you, senator mccain and mrs. mccain, for the confidence that you have placed in me. senator, i am honored to be chosen as your running mate.

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welcome back inside the howl at the moon bar. we're calling it the elephant bar here this week in tampa, florida. we pause for sports. the tampa bay rays. we've got a lot of rays fans in the room here. yeah. try to dig themselves out of a three-game losing streak taking on the rangers. no score in the fourth. ian kinsler of texas gives the

rangers the lead with a solo home run down the left field line. and it turns out one run was all darvish would need. he struck out ten tampa bay rays over seven innings, wins a pitchers' duel, 1-0. with the victory, he becomes the first in franchise history to win at least 13 games. the rays now have lost four straight games. since adding over $100 million of payroll to their roster, things haven't gone so well for the dodgers. it's still early. the latest piece of bad news, matt kemp, ooh, leaving last night's game after crashing into the wall face first in a dead run. kemp was down for several minutes, attempted to stay in the game after trainers checked him out, but he left one batter later to have precautionary x-rays on his jaw and an mri on his knee. the dodgers lost the game 8-4. they've lost their last three. now 3 1/2 games behind the giants in the n.l. west and serious concerns now about their best player. cardinals taking on the pirates last night. second inning, josh harrison waved around third. watch the collision at the plate on a base hit.

drills yadier molina. molina going to hold on somehow, loses half his gear in a yard sale, but he held on to the ball, gets the out. leaves the game with strains in his back, neck and shoulder. he's listed day to day. pirates won, 9-0. finally we bring you one of the most impressive displays of teamwork you'll ever see on a diamond courtesy of the san francisco giants. >> popped up. it's going to be a tough play for somebody. and sandoval flips it in the air. and he thought it! >> oh, my! >> wow! that was pablo sandoval, the panda, first flipping it up to crawford. he makes a second diving catch and the giants record the out and get the win, 3-2. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," ann romney, governor chris christie set the stage for another big day at the republican national

convention. the "morning joe" crew breaks down the highlights from last night, and we'll look ahead to today as well. when we come back here, an update on hurricane isaac which is forcing mandatory evacations in louisiana after storm surge tops a levee there. we'll be right back to tampa. (cat purring) mornings are a special time for the two of you... and now you can make them even more special... with new fancy feast mornings. mornings are delicious protein rich entrées... with garden veggies and egg. each one perfectly designed... to start her day with a little love. new fancy feast mornings gourmet cat food. the best ingredient is love. is now in our new starbucks refreshers™ -- a breakthrough in natural energy. made with real fruit, starbucks refreshers™ are delicious low calorie drinks you can feel good about.

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welcome back inside the howl at the moon bar here in tampa. as we mentioned earlier in the week, tampa has never hosted the rnc before this year, but the president's hometown of chicago holds a special place in republican convention history. if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends chicago has hosted more republican national conventions than any other city. chicago has been the site of the rnc 14 times but not since 1960 when richard nixon received the party's nomination for president. tampa avoided the worst of hurricane isaac. the storm that made landfall again this morning along the gulf coast and forcing evacuations in parts of louisiana. let's go back up to new york, bill karins for the latest. bill. >> willie, new orleans is taking it on the chin this morning with winds at 70 miles per hour and a lot of heavy rain. i want to show you jim cantore, weather channel weather expert. he always is in the center of these storms. he's on canal street in downtown new orleans right now. just to show you the intensity of this storm in new orleans. a lot of people there are, over

300,000 people have lost power. with winds continuing like this, they're going to continue to watch it. the big question is are the pumps going to hold up? they've already had seven inches of rain in new orleans. so far, so good. the pumps are working. everyone's safe. the levees are operating as they should. we're past the worst of the surge, so that's kind of leaving us. now it's just a matter of can the pumps keep up with all the rainwater. we'll find that out during the day today. you can see on the radar, the storm is still a hurricane down on the coast. you can see this cleared-out center of the eye. new orleans is on the dirty side. will stay in it much of the day. flash flood warnings. now flash flood warnings in between gulfport and mobile. pretty nasty on the east side of the storm. just in the last couple hours, we're up to eight inches of rain in new orleans. and we could easily, by the time new orleans is done with this storm, have somewhere close to 15 to 20 inches. and look at the winds. they're not that bad anywhere else. but right in new orleans, definitely the worst of the storm is in southeastern louisiana, willie. remember, we thought this is what it could look like in

tampa. it just didn't happen to go tampa's way, thankfully for them. but new orleans, they're paying the price. >> yeah, and we're keeping an eye on those levees. the one that's overtopped is in plaquemines parish where they're having forced evacuations overnight. bill, thanks so much. talk to you again in a white. why are you awake? your tweets, texts and e-mails are next. "morning joe" just moments away. [ thunder crashes ] [ male announcer ] if you think all batteries are the same... consider this: when the unexpected happens, there's one brand of battery more emergency workers trust in their maglites: duracell. one reason: duralock power preserve. it locks in power for up to 10 years in storage. guaranteed. so, whether it's 10 years' of life's sunny days... or... the occasional stormy one... trust goes a long way. duracell with duralock. trusted everywhere. trust goes a long way. ♪

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